Sharp County record., 1887-09-01
ARKANSAS AND ITS MINERALS.

prief References to the Mineral "eai'h
of Arkansas and to the Slow Progress
Made i'm Developing it for Usetl fur-
poses.
Arkansas Democrat
SoIomon. the wise king, said "there Is
nothing new under the sum-" A similar
remark in reference to minerals was lhaue
bv resident of Southwestern ARKANSAS
Referring to our note books OF January o.
1854. we stopped at 'house OF entertain
ment, for man and BEAST" kept by one
VIM. Bellah, on the Line Road,
in Sewer County, near to the
border line of the ChoctaW lndlah
Nation. Our host owned SILVER
mine which we visited together, ana "ni,e
we were examining the pits and mlneraiS
in the refuse heaps, he said that tne mill
eral, like the vegetable kingdom, had Tunes
and seasons for blossoming; that several
wears back the mineral blossom was pecul.
iarlv conspicuous, and then he discovered
bis mine. that he had not seen any Dlos-
som since. and many years might come and
90 before the mineral kingdom would
blossom again." This was a new idea 10
me. notwithstanding the wise kings
"nothing new"
Bellah,s pits were brim full of water at
that time. They were sunk on regular
lode, well-defned fissure vein, the nearly
vertical walls of which were easily trace
able in northeast and southwest course
for a considerable distance. The refuse
heaps contained red oxide, carbonate anu
native copper, carbonate sillcate anu
sulphate of zinc, baryta and spathic iron.
The argentferous galena mined from the
pits was barreled and shipped to Europe
and the returns from several lots alIer
reduction proved the yield of silver TO
be from 80 to 100 ounces, and more III one
case. to the ton of lead Machinery was
required to pump the water, and money 10
purchase it was wanting, and hence the
mines were imperative, and at that tlme
not one single mine in the State Oh AT
kansas was worked.
Several pits had been sunk twelve miles
north of Little Rock, known as Kellogg
"diggings." Argentiferous galena was eX-
tracted from these pits in considerable
quantities The ore was shipped to Wales
and returns gave from 80 to 300 ounces
silver to the ton of lead. We visited these
mines and found nothing doing there ex-
cepting the destroying operations Oh tlne'
The mines had been worked under lease,
but one of the lessees appropriated all the
profits to his own use, and left his partners
without means to continue the work, ana
this, with other difficulties, occasioned an
abandoning of the enterprise. The pits
had been sunk from 90 to 100 feet deep
the mineral was found as "pocket ore'"
No regular fissure vein had been at that
time discovered.
In 1S49, and about that time. immense eX-
citement was created in Arkansas IN con-
sequence of finding the rich minerals at
the Kellogg mine in Pulaski County and
those of the Bellah mines in Sewer Coun-
ty-both places producing the same class
of argentiferous galena with the same
kind of mineral associations-copper, zinc,
spathic iron, etc.,-led people to suppose,
and not without reasonable grounds, that
the entire zone from northeast
to southwest-frOm the Arkan-
sas river at Little Rock to
the Choctaw boundary of Sewer
County in Arkansas, contained very rich
metalliferous deposits. Capitalists from
New Orleans and other cities on the Mis-
sissippi secured large trackts of land,
amounting to thousands of acres, on the
line of the mineral belt, especially in Pu-
laski, Saline and Hot Springs counties.
The people of Arkansas also were wild
with excitement, searching here, there
and everywhere for precious metals, and
expecting to become millionaires
every hour. 1t was reported that
| 90 found which
caused the expectant prospectors to get
poorer in pocket every day until at last the
collapse in the money market caused full
stop-a period termination TO enthusiasm.
After the expiration of some seventeen
years, following our professional visit to
Arkansas, we reached the State second
time, also professionally as State Geologist,
and found Arkansas quietly resting upon
its mineral wealth, like a miser Sleep
ing on his chest of gold-no devel-
ments moving-no uses made of its
inestimabe treasures, except in one in
stance, and that in Sharp County, in the
Northeastern part of the State, where a
New York company had commenced to
operate the large deposits of zinc ores of
that locality with the intention of erect
ing necessary appliance to make those
rich ores in metallic zinc available for
mercantile purposes, and at the close of
our work we left the State in the same
condition in which we found it as re-
spects its mining advantages. Again,
after our absence of fifteen years, to-wit:
this present year, we are here the third
time, and find Arkansas and its people
wide awake to their interests all over. In
every county the people are exerting
themselves to show that the State really
has internally and externally valuable
and various resources, such as will aston
ish the visitors to the exposition
at Little Rock of Arkansas products,
so superior in quantity, quality and
variety, that not one other sim
gle State of the Union can compare with.
The validity of this bold assertion will be
satisfactorily demonstrated at the City of
Roses from October 25 to November II,
at the exposition grounds this jubilee year
of independence and prosperity of the
every citizen of the Crystal State-Arkan-
| sas WILLIAM +. ROBERTS,
Superintendent of Mineral Department of
Arkansas Exposition.
|
j. O. Rudene. a Washington Ter